Regarding a potential reverse transfer for any counselors or transfer students, from someone who failed the first time around.

Hello r/TransferStudents, I'd appreciate some advice here. Just a quick tldr on the past few years of my life; I flunked out of my university in 2020 and I'm finally at a place in life where I know I'm ready to complete my studies. I am posting to reddit due to summer semester coming up for many universities and community colleges, I've realized it's maybe too late to get in the class roster in time but I'm hoping to minimize time wasted in my life and go into next week with refined questions to be answered. I have a meeting with a student advisor with a community college Monday afternoon and I am planning on scheduling a few other meetings there or elsewhere throughout the week depending on what I learn. My goal is to gather the right questions in advance for meeting 1 and get answers so that I can make a well-informed decision about my future without spending the next few weeks in limbo, although I am afraid I do not know what exactly to ask of this counselor. Hopefully I make it in time to start part time over the summer, fingers crossed.

Ultimately, my goal is to eventually achieve a Bachelors in Information Technology; I had acquired 76 semester credits during my time at my previous university working towards this goal. 41 of these credits are from General Education courses, 35 are from the Information Technology courses required from my university. I live in Michigan, due to state laws regarding transfers and subreddit rules/internet safety this is both necessary information and as far as I will go for identifying remarks.

My current and immediate plan, with mixed but leaning positive reviews from most people in my life, is to do a reverse transfer to a community college to wrap up an Associates degree in IT and whatever other related Associates I may qualify for at that point. Just for clarification, my previous university does not award Associates degrees at all, so I believe I have to transfer to a community college get this done despite meeting credit requirements. From what I know through the most direct answer I could get from my leadership at work; I can't move left, right, or up without a piece of paper from a university saying I've achieved this at a minimum. I plan on utilizing this potential Associates degree to either get out of my department or ideally out of my company, with a few years of experience under my belt and some good reviews from coworkers and bosses. I will use this momentum to go on and finish a Bachelors part-time in a job that I am happier with, I do not plan on stopping once I finally break into the IT field and start doing something I am passionate about.

I was warned by family (professor father), notably when I transfer to a university, that the 76 credits is already too many for a full transfer or even a reverse transfer and will further create challenge in finishing the Bachelors degree. I fully plan on moving locations sometime within the next 2 years and will not be able to attend my previous university in any case, I know if I jump to a university that the closest one to me right now also does not offer Associates degrees but is relatively affordable. I know from some loose math that if I skip the community college / Associates degree route and just get straight into achieving this, it will take roughly 3 years of my life in part-time education that I do not want to spend stagnant in this job/role. But if the path to a Bachelors becomes significantly longer as a result of getting an associates with my previously earned 76 credits, or if the transfer process itself becomes much more challenging, I will absolutely head straight back into the fray. I am expecting to leave the specific community college I chose and preemptively applied for with a minimum of 91 credits based on their transfer policy.

If anyone can help me choose the right path in life, I'd love it to be from some fellow Redditors. I frankly do not know what is best here or what the consequences of going for an associates first as a stepping stone would be from where I'm at. To anyone who has been here before or anyone who can confidently give me advice: I am receptive to help, newly posed questions, or even just encouragement. I know universities and community colleges require a minimum amount of credits to be earned there, which is why I am struggling to pick a path; I would be at my local community college specifically for a minimum of 15 credits before being eligible to achieve an Associates through them, something I am confident I can accomplish in 2 semesters.

I'm willing to answer any relevant questions here regarding my situation, I tried to give as much detail as I could but if anything is missing please ask away. Just touching back on failing out the first time: I know I'm not the only one who has failed at university so to anyone reading who is/was in my shoes, I can only tell you that you'll find a way if you use your own free will and fight for your confidence back. It's hard as hell and incredibly depressing at the start, I went from my cozy apartment one night to sleeping in my car. An inflatable mattress in a basement to living room couches, and eventually back to my childhood bedroom after years of "one day at a time" mentality. I'm choosing to turn my gratitude for every major step I took into optimism for my future, I've achieved so much through perseverance and I know it's replicable for anyone who can motivate themselves to move on in life. It's not easy to pick yourself back up, but if you've made it to this post then you can teach yourself how to fight for your future.

To anyone who replies, I want to thank you for caring to read this and potentially assisting me in finding peace in life. I can only do so much research on my own, answers are hard to come by when you don't know the right questions to ask. You are all very much so appreciated.